


Electric Sheep

by cloudyjenn



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-30
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 02:29:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5317118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudyjenn/pseuds/cloudyjenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Steve Rogers wakes up from a crash in the middle of an unfamiliar land, the only thing he remembers is his name and his bond to his beautiful spaceship.  He goes in search of help only to discover that everyone thinks he's a robot and not even a person at all.  But he feels like a person.  He has emotions like anyone else.  He knows he loves his ship, he wants to find his home and he really likes the look of the doctor who's treating him.</p>
<p>Tony Stark is not a doctor.  He's an engineer, but the weirdly handsome bot who shows up on his doorstep is convinced he's a medical doctor.  Tony's never heard of a bot who could imitate emotions so well.  And he's *definitely* never heard of one who's bonded to a real freaking living ship.  Tony has no idea what to do with Steve, except help him and try very hard to ignore how easily he seems to be falling for this incredibly humanlike robot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was one of the two big bangs I was working on for the CapIron big bang. I couldn't decide between them for a long time, but I did finally go with the other. So I'm posting this one in chapters now because I still like it. 
> 
> Steve's ship buddies are based on some OCs I created for an RP and are not meant to correspond to any Marvel characters. I'm fond of them though, so I hope you like them.

The only thing Steve remembered was his name and his ship. 

He did not remember her name. But he remembered they were Bonded. She was his and he was hers. Steve felt her confusion and pain when he woke up laying on the ground of her inside compartment, his own head aching. For a second, a name lingered on his lips, but then the pain washed it away and Steve could not bring it back. 

The inside compartment was small. The ship was a personal Companion rather than a megaship born to the destiny of carrying hundreds from each of...of...Steve flinched. His own history danced tantalizingly out of reach. He tried to focus on the thought about his home planet or planets, but it only made the pain worse and brought with it a dizziness that made his stomach ache. 

“What has happened?” he despaired, reaching out to pet one of the ship’s leathery chairs. She wrapped one of the safety feelers around his wrist and sent him a shot of comfort. They were together. They would figure it out. His memory would return as the injury receded and so would hers. But for now, they needed to seek medical attention. She thought perhaps her left wing had been broken and she was concerned about his head injury.

Steve stood carefully, holding close to the chair shape formed from her inner floor. His head pain spiked and he was forced to drop into the chair to keep from tumbling down again. “Damn.” The ship suggested searching the inner compartment for medicines. After Steve took a moment to gain his center, he stood again and looked around the compartment. On one side, there was a low bed formed from her floor, but with added pillows and a blanket. At the top of the bed was a small free-standing cabinet. Steve went to it and opened it. Soap, bandages, a bottle of oil he suspected was for intimate purposes, a tin of mint candy...aha! He grabbed a bottle of pain pills and swallowed two dry. 

“Can you open your hatch?” he asked out loud as he spotted a bag on the other side of the compartment. He grabbed it and began putting supplies into it. “I need to find out where we are and see if I can locate a doctor.” 

Steve heard a soft whirring noise and then the influx of cold air. It only then occurred to him that they could have landed on a planet with unbreathable air, but it took only breath to ease that sudden fear. “I’m going to explore. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

Steve turned to find a jacket and paused when his eyes fell on a picture stuck to the door of a closet nearer the cockpit area. It showed a man with shoulder length brown hair and a woman with long red hair tumbling down her shoulders. The woman was smiling at the picture taker, but the man was watching the woman with a look of profound affection. Steve felt a jolt of something he couldn’t identify. Perhaps longing to understand. He tugged the picture down and put in his pocket. Steve opened the closet and found a soft fleece lined coat to don. 

The terrain outside the ship was wooded and flat. He saw a stretch of marked land and broken trees. Their crash landing obviously. Steve stepped off the ship and patted her bright yellow hull. 

“Best go invisible, my love,” he said softly. “I don’t recognize this planet. I have no idea if they have space travel.” Steve worried if the planet had no space travel, they might attack the ship out of fear. “I’ll be back soon.”

He wasn’t worried about finding her again. As long as he kept a general direction in his mind, he knew their bond would alert them to each other’s presence. The ship sent him another shot of comfort and of love and then her bright yellow form shimmered out of visual detection.

Steve patted her again and then began to walk.

********

Bruce could tell the bot was lost. He’d been well-made, tall and strong with a handsome face and soft convincing blond hair. An expensive model. Bruce spotted a hint of circuitry sticking out from a cut on his left wrist. For a moment, he almost walked past and minded his own business, but then he thought of Vision and felt a jolt of guilt. Even two years after being released from custody, Vision struggled to find a place in society. This poor bot looked like he’d been turned out recently.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Bruce asked. The bot had been staring into a shop window at a display of laptop computers and tablets. Mostly Stark products, he noticed. 

The bot startled. An odd reaction to program into a bot, Bruce thought. A suspicion began to grow in his mind. This bot wasn’t one of those new secretive sex toys, was he? He’d heard they were the most realistic models yet. Bruce found the idea of it distasteful. “Oh. I was just admiring the pets,” he said, gesturing to the computers.

Bruce’s eyebrows raised. “Pets?”

“Yes. They’re very sweet, if a bit thin,” the bot commented, a touch worried. “I do have a question, since you asked. Do you know where I might find a doctor?”

“A doctor,” Bruce repeated. Now the bot was beginning to worry him. He sounded like an owner had wiped his memory and dumped him. Sometimes when that happened, they weren’t wiped completely and random bits of information sparked in the bots’ central processors. “Sure, yeah, I know a doctor,” he said, figuring it would be easier just to take the bot to someone who could fix him. Tony wouldn’t mind doing it. He liked working with bots and all the Avengers were very supportive of bots, especially since Vision had come to live with them. 

The bot’s tense expression broke into relief. “Oh good. I have been walking along this street for almost an hour without finding any assistance. No one will pay me attention,” he said, puzzled.

Bruce winced. “Yeah, New Yorkers can be rude.” But it was not just New Yorkers. Many people feared and resented bots still. /They take good jobs from real people/ Bruce often heard. As if bots were doing glamorous jobs or even getting paid in many cases. “Don’t worry too much about it. I have a friend that’s a good...um, doctor. He’ll take a look at you.”

“Thank you. I am Steve,” the bot offered. 

“Nice to meet you, Steve. I’m Bruce. C’mon. Let’s get you home,” he said.

“Yes. Home,” Steve repeated softly, sounding sad.

Bruce wondered what the hell kind of bot he had found.

********

Steve thought the city he’d found was fascinating. ‘New York’ Bruce had called it. He wondered if there were an old York and if it was a magnificent as its descendent. Everywhere he looked, he saw movement. Bright flashing lights, men and women of every color dressed in clothes as diverse as the stars, animals held on leashes, great trundling honking vehicles. No flying vehicles though. Steve was glad he told his ship to cloak. So far he saw no evidence of space travel, but he’d seen enough evidence of technological advancement in the town’s towering buildings, sleek vehicles and electrical signs to believe they had the ability to fix his injury. 

At least he hoped so. It had taken nearly half a day to walk from the forested area into this city. Steve had memorized the route and knew he’d be able to find his way back to the ship. His head felt better from the medicine, but a pain in his wrist had presented itself on his long walk and Steve suspected it was sprained. Hopefully the doctor Bruce knew could help him.

“This is where I live,” Bruce said as they stopped outside of a very tall building. Steve peered up to the top way in the distance. He could make out some kind of symbol at the top, but he could not read it. Hmmm. His translator must be broken too. Steve could understand the spoken language, but not the written version. 

“I think my translator is busted,” he commented as Bruce swiped a card across a device, presumably a safety measure. 

“Your...what?”

“My translator. Your home is humongous,” Steve said, eyes widening. A set of lifting boxes were across the hall, drawing humans up into the building. The boxes didn’t disappear into the building until four floors up. The bottom four floors were open. Steve could see humans walking around halls edging the back three sides of the building, looking very focused. 

“Well, we only live at the very top. This is also office space for Stark Industries,” Bruce said. He had already said that name once before. Stark. 

“Stark the doctor?” Steve asked.

The question earned him another one of Bruce’s searching curious looks. The man seemed befuddled by the simplest concepts. “Have you never heard of Stark Industries?”

Ah, yes. Steve had forgotten that Bruce didn’t know he wasn’t from this planet. Or at least Steve thought he wasn’t from this planet. Not if it did not have space travel and he had his darling ship. “Oh yes, Stark Industries,” he said, nodding. 

Bruce narrowed his eyes at him, but he didn’t comment. He did, however, make sure to hide his hands from Steve’s sight as he entered a code into the lifting box. Steve didn’t mind. He knew this man had no reason to trust him yet. The lifting box drew them up through dozens of floors until it finally stopped at the third most from the top. 

“This is the floor where Tony keeps his lab. I’m going to have to go in alone first to make sure he’s okay with you coming in,” Bruce said. He kept giving Steve odd looks that were also a touch worried. Steve wondered if Bruce thought he was going to hurt him. Steve would never hurt another being, unless it were in self defense. The looks made him feel edgy. He wished he could still feel his ship, but she was too far off for the Bond to pick up.

Bruce left Steve in the small hallway they’d stepped into from the lifting box. He typed in another hidden code and walked into a room Steve only caught a glimpse of. Loud screeching sounds shocked Steve into covering his ears. It took him a moment of panic to realize the noise had a sort of melody. It was music? Incredible. It sounded awful.

The door shut, thankfully cutting off the music and Steve waited alone.

Perhaps three minutes later, the door burst open, this time without assaulting Steve with ugly music and a short sturdy man with a good looking face and a pair of goggles perch on his forehead exploded into the hallway. “Hello, hello,” he said, coming right up to Steve and peering up at him. Steve noticed the man had a smudge of grease on his nose. “Good lord, you’re handsome. That’s creepy, right? Bruce?”

Bruce nodded. “I thought so too.”

“Creepy?” Steve reached up to touch his own face. “Why?”

The man he supposed was Stark the doctor made an unpleasant face. “Did they program him not to even know his purpose? That’s sick.” 

Steve felt alarm begin to grow in his mind. “What do you mean?”

“Do you know when you were created?” Tony asked curiously, poking at Steve’s neck as if looking for something. Steve smacked his hand away in irritation and Tony looked surprised. “I’m just looking for your ID card slot.”

“You stay away from my slots,” Steve said defensively. “I mean I don’t have one. I don’t know what you mean about my creation. I imagine I’m in my 20s, judging from my looks.”

Tony’s nose wrinkled and he started chewing his lip. “This is too weird. Do you...I can’t even believe I’m asking you this, but you do realize you’re a bot, right?”

Steve made an inpatient noise. “I don’t even know what a bot is! I just came here because Bruce said you were a doctor and you could help fix this,” he said, thrusting out his wrist to show Tony the open wound. The wires burned with slight pain. It wasn’t a very deep cut, but Steve worried it would grow infected if Tony didn’t patch him up. “And I think my omni-translator is broken. I can speak your language, but not read it.”

Tony and Bruce stared at him with matching wide-eyed looks. 

“What?” Steve demanded.

Tony recovered first. “I think you better come in,” he said. 

Finally. Steve relaxed and followed Tony into his clinic.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discussion of robot sexual consent in this chapter.

The bot was uncommonly good-looking.  Someone had spent a lot of time perfecting that face before creating the bot.  Tony could see how someone could forget they were fucking a bot when faced with that smile, those blue eyes and that big strong body.  

But still, the idea of bot sex creeped him out.  The growing outcry for personhood status aside, Tony had real doubts about whether a programmed device could really consent.  Others argued it was the same as using a dildo.  But dildos didn’t have faces and expressions and lives.  Whether anti-personhoods believed it or not, bots had lives.  They plugged in at night to rest, they worked jobs, they became friends with humans.  Their team even had its very own bot member, a free bot named Vision.  So Tony was torn on the subject.  

It didn’t help to be confronted by such an expressive bot.  Truly, Steve was a work of art.  His curious blue eyes absorbed everything in the lab.  His hair was styled neatly against his head and looked soft and real.  Even his blinking looked convincing instead of an afterthought as with many bots.

“What happened?”  Tony asked as he drew out a chair for Steve and took his hand to examine the ripped skin.  Damn, even his skin felt real.  He didn’t have that odd too firm skin typical of bots.  Tony was insanely curious about who had this technology.

“I...fell,” Steve said quickly.  

Tony stared.  The bot was obviously lying.  Who had programmed their bot to lie?  What was the point?  He would have worried Steve was a spybot built to be indistinguishable from real humans, but they probably would have programmed him to be a better liar.  Was it all part of making an ultra convincing sex bot?  Maybe Steve was from an upcoming product for the Boyfriend Experience.  

“Okay, well...okay,” Tony said.  “It shouldn’t be that hard to fix it.  Let me just grab some sealant.”  He exchanged a look with Bruce, who was obviously as bemused as Tony.  “So Steve,” Tony said in a casual tone as he gathered his tools.  “You don’t know what bots are, you said?”

“That’s right,” Steve confirmed, his high quality voice politely confused.  “I don’t think I am one though.  I am a person like you.”

Holy fucking cruel programming.  Tony felt a shiver in his gut.  If anti-personhood people could hear Steve sound so earnest in the belief of his own sense of self, they wouldn’t protest outside the Supreme Court.

“Um.”  Shit, Tony was a crap person to have to explain this to Steve.  “Listen, Steve, I don’t mean to upset you, but most people don’t have wires coming out of their wrists,” he said, nodding to Steve’s tear.

Steve looked at his hand.  “What do you mean?”

“The wires...your circuitry,” Tony said, gesturing helplessly.  “You’re not...you know, flesh and bone.”

A look of disgust flickered across Steve’s face.  “Well, of course not.  I’m not an animal.  I’m a person,” he said, though now he sounded a touch more uncertain.  

“So wait,” Tony said as he sat down opposite Steve again and took his arm, laying it on the table between them.  He pulled a hanging lamp over and positioned it to glow down on the arm.  “You think bots are people and humans are animals?  Well, not that we’re not animals, but we’re sentient.”  

Steve looked totally confused.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I’m a person and people have insides of metal--ouch!”  Steve ripped his hand away from Tony, holding it against his chest and looking angrily at him.  “That hurt!  You can’t just repair me without anesthesia!  What kind of doctor are you?”

“I’m not a doctor, I’m an engineer!” Tony snapped instinctively against Steve’s ire.  But he stopped himself from going further as he watched Steve clutching his arm, his face lined with real pain.  “Oh my god,” he said, his voice quiet and stunned.  “They programmed pain into your code?  How?”

“And why?  Jesus, this is disturbing,” Bruce said, coming closer to peer at Steve too.  “Do you think he’s really feeling it or is it just a programmed response to what a human would feel?”

This question was apparently too much for Steve.  He stood up and glowered down at them, suddenly filled with an air of command that made Tony shiver in another and completely inappropriate way.  

“Do not talk about me as if I am not here.  I am not a creation of man.  I was born and I grew up and I don’t remember where I came from, but I know I have family there.  I am a Companion and I feel many things,” he thundered.  “If you won’t help me gently, I will go find someone who will.”

“Well, color me aroused and scared,” Tony muttered into the tense silence that followed Steve’s rant.  

Steve’s commanding air broke into confused annoyance.  “Sit down, Steve,” Tony said, dragging him back down.  “You don’t have to run away.  I’ll get some...I don’t know what what I’ll get, but I’ll find something to disconnect you from this part of your body while I fix it.”

Steve’s expression softened.  “Thank you.  I’m sorry I yelled.  You’re being very generous to bring me into your home.  I...hesitate to ask of you another favor, but for my sweet girl, I would do anything.”

“You have a girlfriend?” Tony asked, surprised again.  Some bots carried on relationships with each other, but it tended to be rare and discouraged by owners.  

“No, I don’t mean a romantic partner,” Steve said.  “My ship.  I know...I understand I am taking a risk telling you about her as I don’t think your people have discovered space travel, but she’s injured and I need your help, please.”

Tony’s eyes lit up.  Bruce turned to him, his own eyes dark with concern.  “Tony, I don’t think-”

“Spaceship, Bruce.   _Spaceship_.”

Bruce looked like he regretted ever meeting Tony.

********

Deep down under the indignation, Steve was afraid Tony and Bruce were right about him.  He didn’t have his memory after all, so he very well could be a robot created of man.  A soulless creature that wasn’t supposed to feel pain or pleasure.  

It didn’t _feel_ that way to him.  His pain when Tony jabbed his wrist with a tool certainly felt real.  As did his fear of never finding home or his anticipation of getting his ship back.  Steve couldn’t remember growing up or his parents, but he knew they must exist.  He knew it was how his life must have worked.  He was born, he grew up and now he was an adult with a Companion and possibly his own family he could not remember.  

Steve worried over the issue while the miles passed away under the wheels of the large vehicle Tony drove.  Tony had had dozens of questions about the ship.  Her size, her injuries, her technology and location.  Steve had no choice, but to tell Tony all he knew.  Tony’s curiosity seemed harmless and besides, Steve knew once the ship was fixed, they could rocket away from this planet.  Tony wrote all of what Steve said onto a very cute little flat screened pet and then he whirled away to locate this vehicle.  A ‘truck’ he’d called it.  The back portion was huge and empty so they could transport his ship back to Tony’s medical equipment.  

“Is it your Companion?” he’d asked Tony.

“What...the truck?” Tony had asked, brown eyes wide.

Steve had just shook his head.  These people’s lives seemed very odd to him.  So much technology, but so little affection for it.  No Companions.  They treated their pets carelessly.  Tony shoved his tiny pet into his pocket without even scratching its sleek body.  And these bots...Tony seemed to think being a bot would mean Steve wasn’t a person with a mind of his own.  

“Are you okay over there?” Tony asked, breaking Steve’s bleak thoughts.

“I was thinking about...ohhh,” he breathed as he felt his Bond begin to glow again.  “I feel her!  She’s...there.  Turn here,” he commanded as he realized they were going to drive too far from her.  

Tony dutifully turned, but he gave Steve a side-eyed glance.  “Do you have some kind of homing beacon on her?”

“No, it’s the Bond,” Steve explained since it was apparent Tony’s kind couldn’t bond with their technology.  “She’s my Companion.  We formed a Bond that helps us communicate.  I wish...I can’t remember anything about her,” he said sadly.  “Not even her name.  I just know that she’s my friend.”

“Telepathic communication with a ship,” Tony said thoughtfully.  “Is she...alive?”

Steve felt shock burst through him.  “Of course she is!  I can feel her.  She’s in pain, but she’s alive and hungry.  She’ll need to hunt as soon as she’s able.”

“I’m sorry, hunt?  Hunt what?” Tony asked, eyes wide.

“Animals.  Whatever she can find.  I am not familiar with the fauna of this area,” Steve admitted.    
  


“So you’re-”

“Turn here,” Steve urged, pointing to the left.

Tony turned, but continued talking like Steve had not interrupted him.  “-telling me that you have a living sentient ship that feeds on animals?  And flew you here from...another planet?”  
  


“I think so.  I mean, yes to the first part,” Steve said, nodding.  “I don’t know where I came from.”

Tony didn’t respond to what Steve said, but Steve could tell he was thinking hard.  His expression always turned distant and his eyes became busy.  Steve had to admit, it was a very becoming look.  Tony would probably become disgusted if Steve admitted that to him, Steve thought with a flutter of displeasure.

He wasn’t a bot.  He _was_ a person with regular attractions like anyone else.

“You’re pouting and I didn’t even say anything,” Tony said a moment later.

“Turn here,” Steve said, feeling grumpy.

He heard Tony chuckle.  It did not improve his mood.  

His ship felt closer than ever.  She gave Steve a sense of welcoming relief and he sent her a steady stream of comfort.   _Soon, my love.  We’ll get you home soon._  

“Stop.”  Tony pulled over on the side of an empty road and stopped the car.

“Steve, I’m not going to lie, this is starting to feel like a horror movie,” Tony commented, peering through the window at the gathering darkness.  

“She’s off the road here.  This is where I emerged when I came looking for you,” Steve said as he unbuckled the safety belt.  “Can you drive into the woods?  It might be hard for her to travel out here.”  

“Sure, yeah, this twelve ton truck is great for off-roading,” Tony grumbled, but he waited until Steve was out of the truck to guide him and drove the vehicle off the concrete road onto the natural ground.  Thankfully it was cold outside and must have been cold for some time because the ground was hard and the truck did not sink.  Steve led Tony about half a mile and then stopped, reaching up to touch his beautiful ship.

“Hello.  It’s alright to uncloak.  This is a doctor.  He’s here to help us.”

“Why did you stop?” Tony hollered from the window.  “Are you...Fucking Christ!” he yelped as the ship shimmered back into existence.  Steve smiled proudly at her.  She really was beautiful.  Only slightly smaller than the truck they drove, she was built for speed, not luxury.  The trunk of her body gleamed bright cheerful yellow and her two side wings were deep scarlet.  That same beautiful red touched her front window along the edge and swirled around the yellow on her back wing.  

Steve heard the door of the truck open and Tony tumble out.  “Holy shit, you really do have a ship.  A big fucking red and yellow ship.  You have...goddamn, Steve, you have an Iron Man spaceship.”  

Steve did not know what that meant, but apparently it had deep meaning for Tony because he couldn’t stop staring and laughing.  Not mocking laughter, but rather amazed shocked laughter.  Steve supposed seeing a spaceship for the first time could be overwhelming.  

“Can you fly a little for me, love?” Steve asked.  “Just to the back of the truck.”

The ship made an affirmative sound and rocked to and fro.  Tony leapt back from her with another startled yelp at the movement.  Maybe he had a nervous condition, Steve thought.  

“Alright then…”  He paused as her name failed to come to his lips again.  “I’m sorry.  I can’t keep calling you ‘the ship’.  Can we come up with a name for you?”

The ship rocked again, moaning out an agreeable noise.  Tony seemed completely incoherent with glee as he sped around her body, investigating closely.  “Don’t mind him.  He’s...an eager person,” Steve said.  He eyed the ship’s bright body.  Even in the dimming evening light, she flashed so brightly among the dark trees.  “How about Sunny?” he asked.  “For your color.”

The ship rolled the word through their Bond, testing it out.  Sunny.  Yes, she said.  Sunny was a good name.  Steve patted her side.  “Good.  Tony, did you hear?  We’re calling her Sunny now.”  

Tony looked up from peering into Sunny’s exhaust pipe.  “Oh, yeah.  Okay.  Hey, Sunny.  I’m Tony Stark, the um...doctor, I guess.  It’s nice to meet you?  Like I never thought I’d be ‘introduced’ to a ship, but you’re really alive, aren’t you?  So yeah, it’s great.  Great to meet you.”

Sunny commented that Tony talked a great deal.  Steve privately agreed.  

“Come on.  Let’s get you home.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who's been reading and for the comments!

Tony could hardly believe his eyes.  

He was looking up at a really working _cloaking_ spaceship.  After they’d gotten Sunny in the truck, Tony had driven to a warehouse lab he used in Brooklyn for bigger projects.  Sunny would fit in his lab at home, but only if she could fly herself.  Otherwise, there was no way of lifting her up the side of the building to get inside.  Plus, probably best to keep her out of the public eye for now.  No one looked twice at the drab truck driving through the warehouse district.  But they’d be drowning in paparazzi if Tony tried to get Sunny up into the Tower.  

Now she was resting, apparently comfortably according to Steve, in his lab.  She was absolutely gorgeous.  Her yellow was more of a bright banana yellow than Tony’s suits, but still, she was yellow and red and beautiful.  Tony couldn’t wait to explore her and maybe get Steve to take them on a ride, but first, they had to get that wing fixed.

“So...I take it the ship feels pain too?” Tony asked.  He’d finally learned to stop talking to Steve like he was an object.  If he believed he was real, Tony would play along.  Better than incurring his wrath again.  

“Yes,” Steve said, visibly upset by Sunny’s injury.  He kept rubbing his hands over the smooth shining metal of her hull.  Sunny grumbled and rocked towards him.  Did she have some kind of vocalizer?  Or was that her engine revving?  Tony almost asked, but Steve started speaking.  

“I have medicines, but it might not be enough.  Do you have painkillers?” he asked.  Steve dug around in his bag and pulled out a bottle of white pills.  “She needs two bottles at least.”

A ship taking aspirin.  Tony had officially seen it all.

“Uh...I think I have some ibuprofen,” he said.  Tony went into the bathroom and searched the cabinets until he found some kind of first aid kit someone put together.  Probably Pepper.  He dug out a bottle of medicine and came back out into the main room.  “How...um.  How does she ingest it?”

“Through her feeding hole,” Steve said in a tone that suggested Tony might be an idiot.  

“O...kay.  And that is…?”

Sunny slid back a slot under her body towards the front.  “Oh.  There.  Feeding hole.  Uh.”

Steve took command.  “Hold out your hands.  Cup them.”  Tony cupped his hands and watched Steve pour out hundreds of pills into his hands.  “Come here.  Lift your hands.”  He dragged Tony under Sunny’s front part.  

“God this feels weird,” Tony said as he lifted to the pills toward her feeding hole.  

He felt a punch of suction and all the pills zoomed up from his hands into her...her mouth, damnit.  Tony refused to think of it as a ‘feeding hole.’  She shut her mouth and released a hissing noise from somewhere.  

“She says it’ll take a few minutes until the pain eases and then you can begin.  Please just be careful not to poke your tools into her sensors,” Steve pleaded.  

“Sure.  I’ll...you know, I’ll doctor her up nicely,” Tony said.  “I can do the whole...bedside manner thing.”

Steve looked skeptical.  

“Just trust me,” Tony said as he turned to gather tools.

Once Sunny had decided it was okay, Tony got to work on her wing.  The break was clean and uncomplicated, but once he got her wing reattached properly, he was going to have to beat out the crunched up hull metal and Tony didn’t know how to do that without hurting her.  

Luckily he didn’t have to find out.  Once he got the metal in place, Tony nearly jumped his wrench in surprise as _the metal began growing itself back together_.  

Tony thought maybe he was very wrong about Steve being a simple bot.

He watched in fascination as the metal fused and smoothed out, Sunny shaking as if annoyed.  Steve made a soothing sound and rubbing her tail fin.  Tony guessed this process probably hurt even with the hundreds of pain pills.  “Is she...am I done here?”

“Yes, thank you.  She can set the rest herself,” Steve said, his voice heavy with gratitude.  “Thank you, Tony.  If I ever knew any medical treatments, I have forgotten them.  I wouldn’t have known how to do that.”

“Hey, no problem.  She’s a gorgeous lady.  No reason to let her wing hang off like that without helping,” he said, hopping down to the floor.  

“Still, I’d like to give you something in return.  Something...would you like to fly in her?” Steve offered, almost shyly.

Tony felt his damaged heart give an odd beat.  Fly?  In a real spaceship?  Aka his dream since childhood?  “Is this a real question?  Is there any other answer than hell fucking yes?” he said.  Tony actually began to feel himself tremble with excitement.  

Sunny made a noise Tony could swear sounded like fond amusement.  

“I don’t think there is, but I wasn’t sure if you would want to,” Steve said, sounding pleased.  “I can’t wait to fly in her either.  I can’t even remember doing it.  I just know it’s wonderful and I’m missing it fiercely.”

Tony felt the same way when he couldn’t fly in his suit for a few days.  Maybe some time she could fly cloaked and he could fly beside her as Iron Man.  “You said she needed to hunt?”

“Oh yes.  Do you have your pet?” Steve asked.

“My...ah, yeah.  My pet.”  Tony pulled out his phone and handed it to Steve.  He expected Steve to start swiping the screen, but of course, Steve wasn’t familiar with phones.  He thought they were little pets.  Steve set the phone on the table and pointed his thumb toward the port.  Tony couldn’t help gasping lightly when he saw wires grow out of Steve’s thumb and connect with the device.  The screen flickered to life and Tony saw images scroll past faster than he could understand.  Steve’s eyes grew blank, flickering to the side over and over.  He was searching online with his mind.  Holy shit.

“Ah okay.  There we are.  I’m grateful your repairs fixed my omni-translator.  You do have so much information at your disposal.”  Steve disconnected his thumb and his gaze returned to normal.  “And your little pet is lovely.  I don’t care what you think; it’s a nice pet.”

“Well, it’s...it’s the latest model,” Tony said, dazed.  

“I thought it seemed young,” Steve commented.

Tony tried not to laugh hysterically.  The feeling crowded his throat, but he managed to swallow it down.  “What were you looking for?”  

“Researching fauna.  Now I can show Sunny where to hunt and what animals to eat.  Foxes, deer, moose, bears and others.  These will serve nicely as her diet,” Steve explained.  

Right, sure.  The ship was a carnivore.  Made sense.  

Steve stroked the side of the phone and looked deep in thought.  The silence was heavy, but not uncomfortable.  Tony thought maybe Steve was the kind of person...bot?...being that needed to think through his words carefully.  Unlike Tony who let words fall out of his mouth without knowing what they were until he heard them.  

“Are you really made from flesh like animals?” he finally asked, sounding troubled.

The poor guy seemed really conflicted about Tony’s flesh and bones.  Like the idea was completely unnatural to him.  “Yeah, I told you.  I swear, I’m flesh and blood and bones and not one circuit in me.  No metal.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I have a device in my chest keeping me alive.”  

Steve looked startled.  “A device?  What happened?”

“Uh...it’s a long story.  Suffice it to say, I got hurt really badly and I had to create a device to keep a piece of shrapnel from shredding my heart.”  Tony tapped his fingers on the arc reactor.  “But that’s the only part of me that’s man-made.  The rest is good old fashioned human flesh.”

Steve did not looked convinced.  He peered at Tony’s chest, a frown lining his features.  Tony sighed and grabbed a knife from the tool drawer.  “See?” he said and then he drew the knife across his arm, cutting a shallow painful line.  Blood pebbled on his skin and then slipped down the side of his arm.  

  
Steve let out a horrified noise and jumped to Tony’s side, jerked the knife out of his hands.  “You didn’t have to do that!  I believed you.  Why did you do that?” he scolded, pressing his hand to the cut.  “You need a bandage.”  

“It’s not that big-”

Steve’s fierce glare shut Tony’s mouth.  He pointed to the bathroom and Steve dragged him there.  “Do you need medicines?  To keep out infection?” he asked, equal parts fretful and angry.  His hands felt nice on Tony’s uninjured flesh.  They were surprisingly soft.  

“Yeah, let’s see.”  Tony grabbed some disinfectant cream.  “First we clean it and then I’ll put some of this on it.”  

Steve turned on the faucet and pulled Tony’s arm under it.  He released him for a moment and then paused, staring at the bright red blood on his fingers.  “You really are an animal.  But you can speak.”  He sounded amazed.  Tony made a face.  

“You make me sound like a performing monkey.  I’m not just an animal.  I’m a person!”  

Boy, did this sound familiar.  Tony scowled as the parallel made itself known in his mind.  Steve apparently made the same connection because he looked smug.  “Shut up and pour some of that cream on the cut.”

By the time they got Tony’s cut cleaned and bandaged, Sunny was making soft crooning noises and rocking again.  Steve grinned.  “She’s feeling better!  She’s very hungry.  Come on!”

Her back hatch lowered to give Tony his first view inside her.  What he saw was unexpected.  He’d been imagining a small ship cockpit like the Millenium Falcon with a metal floor and sturdy metal and leather chairs.  But what he saw was more like….well, the inside of a stomach if it had a small bedroom in it.  Sunny’s inside walls were dark and textured with areas that jutted out in irregular patterns.  It took Tony a moment to realize they were probably bones covered by flesh.  The two chairs in the cockpit area grew out of her body as did the bed lining one side.  A cabinet and a closet had been brought aboard, but otherwise, all the furniture was made from Sunny’s body.

“Wow,” Tony said, unable to think of anything else.

“I know,” Steve said happily.  “Come aboard!”

Tony expected her floor to feel unsteady, but it didn’t.  It wasn’t soft like flesh, but hard and tough like leather stretched over bone.  “It doesn’t hurt?” he asked, pointing to their feet.

The question seemed to please Steve.  “No, she doesn’t mind how it feels,” he said, giving Tony a soft happy smile that made Tony’s stomach flip over.  “Oh, we’ll need the door open so she can get out.  I assume it’s best if she stays cloaked?”

“Definitely.  Although she might still be detected on radar,” Tony said worriedly before he dashed out of Sunny to grab an automatic door opener.  Steve wore confident expression when Tony returned.  

“Don’t worry about radar or other detection methods.  Sunny’s cloaking device covers her from all manner of discovery.  She will be perfectly hidden.”  

Perfect cloaking technology?  Tony *had* to find a way to scan Sunny, figure out how her insides worked.  Already the idea of tearing her apart like a machine made Tony feel sick to his stomach, so he must really be starting to believe they were alive.  But still, he could find ways of studying her without hurting her.  

“Alright, this thing can open the door,” Tony said, holding up the device.  “Let’s roll.”

Steve pressed his thumb to a small slot that resembled a USB port enough that Tony assumed it worked the same way.  Those same wires came out of his thumb and connected to Sunny.  His eyes once again when oddly blank, but this time, it only took about 5 seconds for them to communicate.  

“Alright, now we have a destination.  Sit down.  Mind the safety holds,” he warned just as thick bony feelers crept up over Tony’s legs and waist.  They were lighter in color than the rest of Sunny’s insides and very flexible.  

“Kinky,” Tony commented.  

The feelers held him, but gently, giving Tony the impression that if he panicked or pushed at them, Sunny would let him up.  Her engine...or whatever they called her organic body part...grumbled to life and she lifted off the ground a few feet.  Tony waited until Steve confirmed she was cloaked to press the door open.  He expected Sunny to move like an earth vehicle, moving in wide turns and taking effort to push up to higher speeds.  

So he was surprised when Sunny spun around inside the warehouse and shot into the air.  The sudden burst of speed pressed him hard against her chair and Tony loved every second of it.  He turned his head with effort to grin at Steve, who grinned back with similar pleasure.  Sunny zoomed away from the city with shocking exhilarating speed.  “Where are we heading?” Tony said, his tone a touch louder than normal.  The engine rumbled, but not so loud that Tony had to shout.   

“Daniel Boone National Forest,” Steve said back.  “It looked pretty in the pictures.”

“Daniel...where the fuck is that?” Tony asked, frowning.

“Kentucky, USA,” Steve recited.

“Kentucky?  What the hell?  I thought we were just going to go back to where she landed,” Tony complained.  “It’s going to take hours to get there.  Isn’t she hungry now?”

Steve’s eyebrows knotted together.  “We should be landing in two minutes,” he countered.  Tony’s gaze snapped to the front window and he saw that Sunny was coming in towards a forest.  Amazement lit up his mind.  

“That’s Kentucky?  We got here in five minutes?”

His shock made Steve laugh.  “You are amazed by the stupidest things,” he said.  Tony tried to reach over and kick him, but the feelers were holding him too tight.

“No spaceships, remember!”

Steve was right about the forest.  It _was_ beautiful here, though Tony’s skin crawled at the thought of staying out in this wilderness for longer than it took to admire the view while Sunny swooped down to suck deer and foxes up into her mouth.  She must have been very hungry because Tony lost count of how many times she took them into a sickening nose dive to suck some animal up through the trees.  

Eventually Steve frowned and leaned forward to pet Sunny’s console.  Or what would be her console if she was a regular ship.  “Are you alright, my love?” Steve murmured.  

Tony tensed.  Knowing his luck, Sunny would crash land again while he was in her and they’d be stuck in bumfuck Kentucky for days.  

But her flight didn’t seem affected.  “She said her stomach is starting to hurt,” Steve said, concerned.

“Well, maybe she shouldn’t have pigged out on the woodland creature buffet,” Tony pointed out.

“No,” Steve said, shaking his head.  “She can eat twice as much as she just ate.  It’s something else.  We’re going back to the warehouse.  Maybe it was too soon to try a flight.”

Steve looked so upset and worried that Tony felt bad for his flippant comment.  “Hey, it’s okay,” Tony said awkwardly, patting one of the feelers since he couldn’t reach Steve.  “She’ll be okay.  She just needs some antacid.  I can go buy a bunch.”

The comforting made Steve smile, though it was a small one.  

“Yes,” he agreed.  “She’ll be alright.”  Steve faced forward and touched the console again.  “She has to be,” he said, his voice even quieter.

Tony knew Steve had to be something he’d never encountered before.  No simple bot would looked so wretched with worry over a friend.  

 


	4. Chapter 4

Steve worried the whole way home that Sunny was allergic to Earth animals.  Or worse that they were deadly to her.  He’d been so stupid to assume that just because they were meat creatures that she would be able to ingest them.  Sunny tried to reassure them through their Bond even as Steve felt her pain growing.  She thought perhaps it was just indigestion, but if that was the case, why did the pain grow?

It took Sunny twice as long to get back to the warehouse because of the pain.  When they got close, Tony pushed the door opener frantically and Steve realized that Tony was nearly as worried as Steve.  The realization made him feel less lonely.

Sunny slid into the building and Steve felt her uncloak.  Decloaking helped ease the pain because she wasn’t focusing on staying invisible.  “Do you think it would help to get some acid reducer?” Tony asked as they both stood up and dashed to the hatch.  It opened sluggishly.  “I don’t know if ships even have acid, but for humans, it helps when our stomachs hurt.”

Steve shook his head.  “She says it doesn’t feel like it’s her stomach.  Let’s get her some more pain pills though,” he said.  

“I’ll have to go buy some more,” Tony was saying as they walked down the ramp.  That’s when Steve saw it.  He grabbed Tony’s arm and pointed, feeling relief crash over him.  

“Tony, look!  Her birthing hatch is opening!  She’s...she’s having a baby!” he exclaimed, stunned.  He felt an echoing jolt of shock in the Bond.  Neither of them had any clue she was pregnant.  Why had they left her flock if she was pregnant?  Steve had so many questions.  

“Birthing hatch?”  Tony peered at the small opening for two seconds and then whipped his head around to face the warehouse door.  “That’s her...her…?”

It took Steve a moment to realize that Tony was embarrassed to be looking at what he perceived as her genitalia.  He laughed, partly in amusement at Tony and partly in his giddy relief that nothing serious was wrong with Sunny.  “No, ships aren’t like people, Tony.  They mate with other attachments.  This hatch is only for birthing.”

Despite himself, Tony looked interested  “So, she’s got a mate?  Does she still want the pain pills?  What do we need to do?”

Steve didn’t know if Sunny had a mate.  Obviously she had mated, but he didn’t know if she was still in a relationship with him.  Steve suspected she was.  Ships formed mate Bonds like Companion Bonds and he couldn’t imagine anyone breaking a Bond.  Poor Sunny.  He patted her side.  Steve would get her back to her mate.   He vowed it silently to her and felt her anxiety lessen.  

“Yes, get the pain pills,” he answered instead.  “Sunny doesn’t think we need to do anything in particular.  She’s really the one who does all the work here.”

Tony nodded.  Without turning enough to see her birthing hatch, he reached up to pat her side.  Across the Bond, Steve felt Sunny’s glow of affection toward Tony.  Steve knew they owed him so much.  

“Thank you,” Steve said.  

He earned another nod and then Tony was gone to purchase pain pills.  Steve really couldn’t do much to help Sunny, so he sat on the ground near her middle and leaned against her side.  Being close helped keep Sunny’s nerves steady through the pain and uncertainty.  He kept glancing up at the birthing hatch.  Steve thought he saw a small golden nose peeking through the partially open hatch.  

By the time Tony returned with a bag, the hatch had only opened another inch or two.  It would take some time for her to birth, but hopefully it wouldn’t be so painful after she took the pills.  Something else in the bag smelled good.  It made Steve realize he hadn’t eaten in hours.

“I bought out their supply of aspirin in case she needs more later,” Tony said.  He set the bag on the ground and dug out two bottles.  “I also got us burgers.  Do you eat?  I figured if the ship did, you probably need people food.”

“What is burgers?” Steve asked, standing and coming to investigate the bag.

“Ground up cow meat and bread,” Tony explained.  “And fries are in there too.  Fried potatoes, which is a kind of starchy...oh, yeah, okay.  You eat.”  Steve already had three fries in his mouth.  They burned his tongue, but also tasted _so_ good.  “I got them with no salt so they’d be fresh.”

Tony opened one bottle and held it tightly so Sunny could suck the aspirins out of it.  “How’s it going?” he asked.  Steve smiled when he realized Tony was asking Sunny directly.

“She says it’ll be better with the pills, but she thinks it won’t be too much longer now,” Steve explained as he watched Tony open the second bottle.  He unwrapped a burger and took a huge bite.  Steve grunted with pleasure.

“Are you gonna make porn noises the whole time you’re eating?” Tony asked, eyebrows raised.  He joined Steve and sat on the floor, digging out his own food.

“Porn?”  Steve sat beside him and stuffed more fries in his mouth.  Food on this planet was really delicious.

“Don’t tell me they don’t have porn on your planet.”  Tony sounded scandalized, but Steve thought he was teasing.  “Pornography.  Pictures or videos of people fucking.  Having sex,” he clarified.  “Do your people have sex?”

“Of course,” Steve said, frowning in annoyance, but he knew his ears were slightly red.  He knew they had mating because he liked looking at Tony so much.  But there were so many reasons he couldn’t pursue the attraction.  Tony didn’t think he was a person.  Steve was only visiting the planet.  And most importantly, Steve might already have a mate he could not remember.

“Do you have a mate?” Steve asked in what he hoped was a casual tone.  His fries were gone and he must have made a sad face because Tony handed him another box.

“I thought you might want a lot,” he said.  “And no, I don’t.  Not a permanent partner.  But I’ve had sex.  More than the average person, probably.”  His tone sounded reflective as though he were looking through the memories in his mind.  Steve wondered whether Tony preferred male or female partners.  Perhaps both.  

“I don’t know if I have a mate or if I’ve ever had sex,” Steve said with a sigh.  He set his second burger down, suddenly not as hungry.  “It’s _so_ frustrating to not be able to remember anything.”

“Maybe you just need some time,” Tony said.  His tone was surprisingly gentle.  “I know for humans it can take time after head injuries for them to regain memories.  I was the same way after a battle once.  I got head slammed by a Doombot and I couldn’t remember short term memories for a few days after.”

“A battle?  But I thought you were a doctor...an engineer,” Steve corrected himself.  “Are you a soldier?”

Tony snorted.  “Fuck, no.  I’m Iron Man,” he said with such pride that Steve couldn’t help tugging his lips up in a smile.  “Which I’m aware means nothing to you.  Here.”  Tony pulled out his pet and clicked on it for a moment.  When he turned it to show, Steve saw a smooth bright suit of armor colored in deep gold and brilliant scarlet.  

“It’s beautiful,” Steve said, awed.  “Is that you?  As the Iron Man?”

“Yeah.”  The pride and affection turned his already lively brown eyes into shining jewel-bright sparks.  Steve thought to himself that Tony looked even more beautiful than the armor.  “I built the armor after I was attacked and held hostage.  It’s...not a pleasant story.”  Some of the light went out of his eyes.  “I used to be a pretty rotten person...still am in ways, I guess.”

Steve frowned.  “You don’t seem rotten to me.  You’ve helped me and Sunny when you didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, but you don’t know what I’m making up for.”  Tony handed Steve the pet.  “Here.  Search for ‘Tony Stark, merchant of death’ and you’ll see what I mean.”

Steve took the pet and pushed out with his connectors.  The information exploded into his mind.  Anthony Edward Stark, born May 29th, 1978 to Howard and Maria Stark of New York City.  Graduated high school at 14, college at 17.  Parents dead the same year.  Assumed role of CEO at Stark Industries at age 22.  Multiple articles about Tony Stark’s party lifestyle.  Dozens of beautiful boyfriends and girlfriends.  Built better and bigger bombs, guns and missiles, getting ever richer on destruction and death.  Captured by a terrorist group called the Ten Rings.  Held hostage for over a month until escaping by building the first version of the Iron Man suit.  Immediately changed the entire nature of SI to focus on green energy.  Shut down all weapons making.  Pursued all remaining weapons, purchasing them back for huge sums of money to have them destroyed.  Joined superhero team known as the Avengers two years ago after making a splash saving lives in his Iron Man armor.  

Steve let out a long breath when he finally pulled back his connectors.  Tony wasn’t looking at him.  His gaze was on the half-eaten sandwich on his lap.  “So you see...you know what kind of person I really am.”

“Yes,” Steve agreed.  He reached out and gripped Tony’s shoulder, startling him into looking up with worried brown eyes.  “Making mistakes doesn’t make you rotten.  You were confronted with the fact that what you were doing was wrong and you changed.  Staying the same and not caring...that would have made you rotten.”  He squeezed Tony’s shoulder and let his hand fall away.  “I think you _are_ the Iron Man.”

Tony didn’t seem to know what to do with that statement.  He flapped one hand, looking flustered and then fell back on flippant insults.  “You’re a fucking sappy robot, you know what?  Eat your burger.”

Steve’s hunger returned as did Tony’s and they ate their way through four cheeseburgers, three boxes of fries and two flat pastries called apple pies.  He was collecting the trash when he felt a jolt of hard pain across the Bond and Sunny calling to him.  Steve jumped to his feet.

“The baby is coming!”

They both scrambled around to Sunny’s stern.  Tony didn’t seem embarrassed about looking into the birthing hatch anymore.  Perhaps because of the excitement of a baby coming.  The little nose was further out now, showing itself to be a deeper gold than Sunny’s bright yellow.  “Look at his nose!”

“Is it a boy?” Tony asked.  “How do you tell?”

“They tell you,” Steve explained.  “All the differences between male and female are internal.  Sunny will be able to figure it out when they Bond.  That’ll happen right after-”

“Holy shit!”  Tony yelped.

The hatch suddenly opened all the way and the baby fell out, hitting the ground with a hard thunk.  Steve instinctively knew the baby could handle it, but Tony had no idea.  He dove for the baby and scooped it up, holding it close against his chest.  “Jesus, are you okay?  Is he okay?” Tony asked Steve desperately.  

The baby made a soft crooning noise and rubbed its nose against Tony’s neck.  He was _perfect_.  About one foot long and half a foot tall.  Deep golden with his mother’s scarlet showing up more liberally than she displayed.  All three wings were red and his body was streaked with red.  “He’s fine,” Steve assured Tony.  “He’s gorgeous.  Come on.  Let’s take him aboard.  Sunny wants to see him.”

Tony held the baby so carefully.  The baby’s crooning noises sounded happy to Steve.  He must have liked Tony.  “Can she see better inside her body?”

“She can see fairly well either way.  But she wants to hold him too.  I think...it’s odd because I don’t remember people or places, but I remember how things work,” Steve explained.  The hatch came down easier this time and they walked aboard.  “Normally ships give birth in space and then the mothers suck up the babies into their insides to keep them safe.”

“That is far more endearing than it should be,” Tony muttered.  He cradled the baby, his fingers gently petting the still soft red wings.  “Where…?”

“Here on the chair,” Steve said, pointing to the chair Tony had used when they went flying.  Tony looked very reluctant to stop touching the baby, but he did put it down into Sunny’s grasp.  Two feelers curled over the baby to hold him close.  The baby shrieked a happy sound and rolled around to wrap his tiny wings around one of the feelers.  

Sunny’s emotion across the Bond made Steve’s throat grow tight.  She instantly adored her child.  Steve thought he must not have children because there was no way a person could ever forget that kind of deep consuming love.  Sunny was absolutely _lost_ to her adoration for the baby.  She put out a feeder tube for the baby and he latched onto it eagerly, drinking hard.  

Tony sat down on the floor and watched the baby.  Steve didn’t have a Bond with Tony, but if he had to guess, he’d say Tony had fallen in love with him too.


End file.
